MANILA - Twenty-one Filipino seafarers stranded in India since June will be repatriated soon, the Philippine envoy there reported to home office this week.

Philippine Ambassador to India Ma. Teresita Daza told the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) that the seafarers may be expected to leave for Manila as soon as their final exit clearances are issued.

Daza said private lawyers filed a case in court on Wednesday and will apply for exit clearances on Monday.

The 21 seafarers are crew members of the M/V Evangelia M who have been stranded in India's southern port city of Kakanada since June after being abandoned by the vessel's owner.

The ambassador said that the embassy has been coordinating closely with Indian port authorities, Admiral Shipping Agency, the seafarers' local agent in India, and Evic Human Resource Management Inc., the manning agency in the Philippines.

Officials of the Philippine Embassy in New Delhi and the Philippine Consulate General in Chennai also visited the seafarers to check on their condition and provided them cash assistance.